


Through the Storm

by Crowlows19



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Family, Fluff, M/M, Space storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 12:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5127083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowlows19/pseuds/Crowlows19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter's first space storm leads to some family bonding. Lots of fluff and cuddles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Storm

Kraglin knew next to nothing about Terrans and he was positive that Yondu knew even less. Therefore, he wasn’t entirely certain how long these little planet bound beings could go without eating. Yondu had made the mistake of allowing a few random, but ultimately competent and loyal, crewmates be in charge of the cargo’s wellbeing. And that was how they ended up with the kid hiding in the ducts and stabbing every hand that came too close.

The grates that kept debris from flying all around the inside of the ship had kept the kid from going too far but he was still just out of reach for most. Kraglin had sent for some of the crew that had unusually long appendages and they were now all cussing up a storm and shaking various colored blood off their fingers and palms. Kraglin was entirely unsure of how Peter had managed get a hold of a kitchen knife but whoever was in charge of those was about to be in a lot of trouble.

Especially since Kraglin had been cooing at the kid for the last half-hour and was quickly running out of patience. He sent his audience away hoping that the lack of various colored Ravagers would ease some of the kid’s fear.

“C’mon, kiddo,” he said, trying to sound as comforting as he could. “There’s nothin’ to be scared of.”

“Not scared,” Peter grumbled, managing to sound offended that Kraglin would even think such a thing. Kraglin had to push down a hysterical need to laugh.

“Well, excuse me for thinkin’ you was hidin’ in the duct work ‘cause you was scared,” he replied lightly. “If you aren’t scared, then what are you doin’ in there, huh?”

“I’m not hiding,” Peter insisted. Kraglin sighed and held out a protein bar. Peter had been disgusted by the food they’d put in front of him the first night he’d been on broad. Yondu had laughed at the poor kid’s face, still dripping with tears and snot, when the cook had put the bowl in front of him. Nobody much liked the food, but to Peter it was downright terrifying. He’d accused them of trying to poison him and when Yondu had laughed in his face he had hid under the table for the rest of the meal.

About a day later they’d finally found something that Peter would eat: the protein bars that were used only when there was nothing else to eat. Peter said they had tasted like something called marshmallows and had proceeded stuff six of them into his mouth, much to the amazement of the crew. The little Terran was the only one who liked the squishy, brown bars.

And now Kraglin was hoping that the lure of these bars would draw the hungry kid out from the ducts. Peter just glared at him.

“Go away,” he snapped. Kraglin visibly deflated, no longer able to keep up good spirits and sighed heavily.

“C’mon, Peter,” he snapped. “Get out of there.”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“I don’t wanna be eaten!”

“What?” Kraglin asked, very confused.

“Horuz said they wanted to try Terran! I don’t wanna be eaten Kraglin!” The kid sounded outright panicked and the Hraxian was seriously considering stabbing Horuz in face. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Nobody’s gonna eat ya’, kid,” he said.

“Yes, they are!”

“No, they’re not,” he insisted. “Yondu won’t allow it and nobody says ‘no’ to the Captain, right?”

Peter nodded immediately. He hadn’t been there very long and was still under the impression that the crew followed every order Yondu ever made. Kraglin wasn’t about to end that little fantasy if it meant getting the kid out of the duct.

“No one’s gonna eat ya’,” he repeated.

“Promise?” the kid asked pitifully.

“Promise.”

There was a moment of silence as the boy contemplated Kraglin and then, slowly, he crawled forward into the first mate’s waiting arms. Kraglin set him down on his feet and handed him the ‘Marshmallow’ as Peter kept calling it. The hungry kid ate the nasty bar rabidly, now perfectly happy. Kraglin marveled at the kid’s ability to be distracted.

“Give me the knife,” he ordered and Peter handed it over. Kraglin wasn’t sure what he’d done to make Peter obey him so easily but he hoped it lasted until they booted the kid to his buyer. The less trouble they had, the easier Kraglin’s life would be.

00000

Yondu never actually got around to delivering Peter to the man who had paid them to fetch him in the first place. Kraglin suspected it was because he kind of wanted to kill the guy and the meanest way of snubbing him was to just not show up with his kid. Yondu had let Kraglin know that Peter was actually the client’s son. It didn’t much matter to Kraglin one way or the other.

This was mostly because he was positive that Yondu wasn’t about to give up the kid anytime soon. After the incident with the ductwork, Peter had taken to following Yondu around like a shadow, certain that if he kept close to the Captain no one would try to eat him. He clutched at Yondu’s clothes, forced him to hold his hand, and hid under the man’s coat when he was scared. Yondu mostly let him him do it without comment or reaction.

When the ship hit turbulence Peter would latch onto Yondu’s leg and refuse to let go again until they had a smooth flight path. The little boy was too scared and too small to sleep in any of the crew bunks and so had been sleeping on a cot set up between Yondu’s bed and the wall. This effectively placed him on Kraglin’s side of the bed which he heavily suspected was so that Kraglin would be the one to be woken up in the middle of the night cycle.

Peter had nightmares for months. Sometimes he just woke up, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Other times he pulled on Kraglin’s fingers and the first mate had to hold the kid’s hand until he fell back asleep. And a few times, Peter got so scared he actually crawled over Kraglin and forced himself in-between the first mate and the Captain. Those were the only times Yondu ever woke up and he would wipe the kid’s tears, bundle him into his arms, and hum a tune from Peter’s music tape until the kid fell asleep.

Peter eventually got used to the ship and the Ravagers and he readily took advantage of this new found comfort to run wild around through the corridors. He mostly ended up in the hanger, learning how to care for the M-ships. So excited he was to learn everything he could about spaceships, he hardly noticed that the crew were dumping the most menial tasks into his lap. At nine years old, Peter was perfectly happy to count bolts for inventory and tune steering gears until his little face was streaked with black grease.

He always came to dinner smelling like oil and he babbled at them excitedly as they ate at the Captain’s table. Peter suddenly loved everything about space and aliens. His excitement remained unhampered for months. It wasn’t until the lights went out that it finally sunk in that the danger was very real.

00000

There was absolute chaos in the Eclector as the ship tipped wildly from side to side, buffeted by the cosmic winds. The power flickered in and out, threatening to go out altogether. The crew was running every which way as they rushed to their assigned bunk rooms. Many of them had been through these storms before and knew the drill.

Once the storm alarms went off everyone had to be in their bunks in ten minutes. When those ten minutes were up, the doors would seal. Only the bunks would have any power or air. The rest of the ship would shut down. Gravity, light, air, everything would be down in an effort to conserve resources. There were emergency rations in each bunk. If you weren’t quick enough, you died. They rarely had a fatality due to a crew member being unable to get back to their bunk.

Only trained engineers would have any amount of freedom. When the alarms went off, they went to the engine room which would also remain habitable. If needed, the engineers could don space suits and exit into the ship as needed but mostly they stuck to the engine room and kept the generators going. Once the storm had passed they would sweep for damage to the outside hull. If everything was intact, they would signal the Captain who would turn the ship back on and let out the crew.

All of this was instinct to Kraglin by now. They had all been through many storms and many drills but nine-year-old Peter had not. He had been through a drill or two, but he had never taken them seriously. However, halfway through the day cycle the alarms had blared and the ship had erupted into complete chaos as crew members rushed to safety. The bridge had been watching the storm for a few hours by then and Yondu had decided to go ahead and get everyone hunkered down, just in case. Yondu wasn’t known for playing with lives of his crew; that was why they could always get new recruits.

Kraglin had immediately left the bridge with the others while Yondu entered in codes to begin the countdown. He was always the last to leave the bridge. Peter had been in the hanger as usual and was immediately grabbed by the scruff of his neck by the head mechanic and frog marched to the captain’s bunk. Once he’d been handed to Kraglin, the mechanic had left for his own bunk housed around the corner just as he had been ordered to.

Yondu arrived two minutes before the countdown finished and he closed and locked the door. Kraglin watched him pull up a map of the ship, making sure that the sensors registered no movement in the corridors. Everyone was where they were supposed to be. When the ten minutes were up, he shut down the ship. The doors sealed, the safety locks engaged, and everything fell eerily silent. The lights in the cabin shut off and the emergency lights in the base boards clicked on. The only place that would have the regular lights would be the engine room.

Kraglin knew that the crew would each be in their own beds where they would strap themselves down and wait for the storm to pass. Most of them would fall asleep as it was protocol to be as quiet as possible in case the comms rang with an emergency order. There was always a designated crew member who would man the comms in each bunk room and would therefore be required to stay awake. The bunk mates usually passed that duty around.

Inside the captain’s bunk, Yondu pulled out the safety belts he stored in the closet and snapped them into the chairs around their table. All the furniture was bolted to the floor. They could also snap themselves into the bed but Yondu and Kraglin almost always had to monitor the sensors through the entire storm. The Eclector started shaking more violently than ever just as a huge wind gust hit, buffeting the ship with cosmic dust.

Kraglin had to pry Peter off the table leg and force him into the chair between Yondu and himself, strapping him in. The kid had his music with him and Kraglin pointed to it.

“Do you want to listen to some music?” he asked, calmly knowing that the look in the kid’s eye was pure fear. Kraglin hadn’t seen that look in a while but the boy was very clearly scared. Peter shook his head and clutched at the safety belt strapping him to the metal chair. Yondu and Kraglin fixed their own straps, put in their comm links, and booted up the in-bunk computer stations.

The storm continued to buffet the ship, shaking everything. The wind roared so loud it was all they could hear which is why it had taken a while for Yondu to realize that Peter was crying he was so terrified. He reached around and pulled the kid’s headphones onto his head and turned on his music. He turned the music up as loud as it could go. The wind was so loud they couldn’t even hear it.

Peter didn’t even seem to notice. The ship gave a huge jump and the boy shouted and grabbed at Yondu’s coat. Yondu let him hang on for at least an hour as they worked to keep power levels where they needed to be, shutting down systems that weren’t initially shut down and diverting power to the engine rooms where the engineers were working feverishly to keep the generators up.

They had been through worst storms and Kraglin wasn’t particularly worried. Even if the generators went down it would take a full day cycle before they had to worry about the air. He doubted this storm would mean much. But Peter was terrified. The kid had been through drills for this but this was his first real space storm. He wouldn’t be used to it until he’d been through at least a few. Kraglin kept a close eye on him, rubbing the kid’s arm when he could, trying to offer some comfort.

Finally, they hit the eye of the storm. The wind died and everything went extremely quiet. Peter’s music sounded louder than ever. Kraglin shut it off, peeling the headphones away from his ears, and the little boy snapped out of his terrified daze.  

“Is it over?” he squeaked.

“Afraid not,” Kraglin said and gave Yondu a signaling look.

“Peter,” he said forcing the kid to look at him. Kraglin ignored the two and their babble in exchange for rooting around in the table’s lone drawer. He pulled out a syringe, already loaded, and calmly stuck it into the back of Peter’s neck. The sedative knocked him out before he could even register that he’d been stuck.

“You really think that’s necessary?” Yondu asked as the kid’s eyes shut and his head lolled.

“Poor kid might’ve peed his pants by the time this was over,” Kraglin replied. “He’ll get over the fear eventually.”

Yondu smirked at him fondly just as the wind picked up again. It was another four hours before the storm went mild. The weather projects predicted another few days of light cosmic storms. Yondu decided to leave everyone locked in the bunks through the night in case the storm picked up again.

He and Kraglin moved Peter to the bed, snapped the safety belts around them and into the built in latches. Yondu set an alarm for if the wind reached a certain speed and they pulled the blankets up around themselves.

00000

Peter and Kraglin spent the next day in bed, playing Hraxian strategy games on a datapad. Kraglin had let the kid remove the safety straps as the storm was barely making the ship rock. However, Kraglin wouldn’t let him get up from the bed by himself in case there was a sudden gust. He had been knocked off his feet more than once through the years because of those gusts.

“This isn’t anything like checkers. You lied,” Peter accused.

“Kid, I don’t know what checkers is,” Kraglin replied. Peter scowled down at the datapad. He was leaning against Kraglin’s bare chest, firmly ensconced in his lap, and utterly confused about which pieces belonged to him.

Yondu watched them from his place at the table, his gaze intent and his implant pulsing slightly. Peter hadn’t noticed and even if he had he wouldn’t have known what it meant. But Kraglin was entirely familiar with Centaurian instincts. Those instincts were why he had moved out of the crew bunks in the first place. Yondu had kept sneaking into the bunk in the middle of the night cycle to sleep by Kraglin and it had started to creep out his bunk mates. The Captain couldn’t seem to stop himself so Kraglin had just moved into the Captain’s bunk. It actually generated less gossip that way.

Centaurians gave their hearts only once and Yondu had gone all in with Kraglin. They weren’t just Captain and first-mate; they were partners and despite having never discussed the possibility of kids, they were ultimately responsible for one now. Yondu could have left the kid to sink or swim in the crew bunks but Kraglin had taken pity on the poor kid and then Yondu’s instincts had fully kicked in. Now the kid was theirs. At least until he got too adventurous and took off.

Eventually, Yondu couldn’t resist and he joined them. Kraglin handed him the datapad and he read Peter Xandarian storybooks until the kid fell asleep. They spent the rest of the night listening to the storm winds, strapped to the bed, and whispering to each other about which ports they should land in to get supplies.

00000

After the storm, Peter was irreversibly their kid. Yondu turned a storage room only accessible through his quarters into Peter’s personal bunk; Peter stole his favorite pillow (initially Kraglin’s) from the big bed and proudly put his things in a crate under the bed. Over the years the kid put up posters and shelves which held trinkets Yondu had picked up for him. The two of them had a tendency to collect and trade small toys bought and stolen across the different worlds.

It wasn’t uncommon to hear the two of them bargaining with each other at their mess hall table for one trinket or another. Yondu had his eye on an orange haired thing Peter had kept from his Terran days. The boy was outright refusing to trade it for anything. Kraglin was certain that meant it had come from his mother.

They had to break the kid out of a few prisons along the way and the kid brought in some good scores. Eventually, Peter took his ship and headed out on his own. His own jobs, his own contacts, his own bailouts. Yondu still took a cut (the Milano still belonged to him after all) and he would often send potential one-man jobs Peter’s way. Kraglin worried about him constantly but silently.

Although Kraglin knew that this stupid orb business had made Yondu regret ever letting the kid go in the first place. It wasn’t until Yondu had showed him the oranged haired toy that Kraglin knew Peter would be just fine.

But Peter would always be their kid and even though Yondu complained very loudly when they had to rescue the kid from Terra, of all places, Peter knew that if he ever needed a place to stay, his little storage room with all his Ravager things was there waiting for him.


End file.
